Tag: jk rowling

If you haven’t heard already, at midnight on Harry Potter’s birthday the script-book edition of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was released. And if you haven’t heard already, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth Harry Potter story, told in the form of a play that you can actually see if you’re super lucky and live in London, or that you can read in the form of this book.
Also, do you have to pay property tax on that rock you live under?
I personally didn’t go to a midnight release party for it because I’m a fake fan. But seriously, my sister’s graduation party was that night and I was exhausted. Also – and I don’t know if this is TMI – but I’m literally so sunburned. All of my skin is falling off and I didn’t want people thinking that I was cosplaying as a molting basilisk.
I had to go to the DMV the following day to get my temporary driver’s license (which isn’t really good for anything but WOOOOO) and I figured I would be super bored waiting so my mom and I ran to Barnes and Noble and – not too surprisingly but completely disappointingly – they were completely sold out.
In a panic, we went to Target, wondering, might they have a copy left after all this time?

Always.
Target did a thing where you got a free poster with the purchase of the book so that was pretty cool even though the poster wasn’t anything too amazing. The cashier was really friendly and talked about how he felt like a fake fan because he didn’t even realize it was coming out until he was stocking the shelves. He still gave me a funny look when he asked me if I wanted it in a bag and I almost yelled, “No!” and grabbed it.
Watching people put hardcover books in those plastic bags stressed me out so much. You are literally begging the universe to rip the dust-jacket.
But I digress, it was a good day overall.

Spoiler-Free Review

**because this is a play, the plot moves very fast and it will be hard to review this without revealing any details. If you haven’t read the book yet and want to go into it blind, stop here.**
So the basic premise of this book is that it picks up from the epilogue in Deathly Hallows where the grown up squad of Hermione, Ron, and Harry are seeing off their children at King’s Cross. The main focus in this story is on Albus Severus Potter, who is having a hard time feeling like he fits into his family or anywhere. This leads him to make some extremely poor decisions and almost ruin the entire world.
First of all, let’s talk about the characters. Scorpius Malfoy is my spirit animal, obviously. He’s just an adorable little nerd trying to get through life and be brave while simultaneously being afraid of everything. Rose Granger was also fantastic, just a really funny, strong character. She reminded me so much of Hermione without the authors blatantly trying to make them the exact same person.
Albus kind of annoyed me. He did sort of remind me of Harry though. He just really wanted to do what he thought was the right thing, but didn’t always think it through very well. I’ll get more into that with the spoilers.
As for the plot, it made sense if you didn’t think about it. I don’t necessarily mean that in a super negative way, it’s just true. It was fast-paced and entertaining and I’m sure that’s part of the reason why it translates so well onto the stage. However, if you pause and think about the actual logistics of some of the magic and time-travel, it’ll make your head hurt.
In some ways, the plot also seemed a little cliché and predictable to me. The whole “tiny change in the past creates crazy ripples in the universe” element was well done but nothing new. However, the different alternatives that we get to see poses some very interesting “what-ifs” and allows more old characters that we’ve missed to be incorporated into the story.And speaking of old characters… let’s talk about Harry, Ron and Hermione. They’ll always be some of my favorite characters of all time. How could they not be? I was excited to see how their personalities would stay the same and change as they got older.
Here’s the issue: You know how Maxon and America were all grown up in The Heir and The Crown? And like, it was them, but it wasn’t? Like they were older, but it seemed like their characters just served the purpose of being some parents, and even though they were well-developed as parents, they didn’t seem like the well-developed younger characters, just grown up? It’s like they were completely different people with the same names, and some of the old trademark qualities being extremely forced as if they’re screaming through their beaming, remembered faces, “Look! It’s us! I promise!”
If you haven’t read the Selection and didn’t really get that comparison, I was also reminded of one of my favorite songs at the moment, called “Next Year” by Two Door Cinema Club. It had a line that goes:

Maybe someday,
You’ll be somewhere,
Talking to me,
As if you knew me

I know it sounds dramatic, but I couldn’t stop thinking about that line. They really just didn’t seem like the same characters at all. And I know that they’re grown up and I know that they’re not going to be completely the same, but the entire time it felt like these characters were talking, trying to become people that they just aren’t anymore. Like those characters were really new, more boring characters Polyjuice-potioned into being Harry, Ron and Hermione. Impostors. Impastas.

As for the formatting, I didn’t really mind it being a play. I’m sure that some of the issues with things not being very well-explained could’ve been fixed if it was a full narrative, but that was really my only issue with it. I found it interesting – as I was reading, I pictured everything on a stage. Did that happen to anyone else? It was weird, but not unpleasant.
The stage directions/descriptions were really amazing, too. I had to slow down a lot when I was reading to make sure that I was really reading and appreciating everything, because there were some beautiful little gems in there. My favorite was this one:

There’s a silence.A perfect, profound silence.One that sits low, twists a bit, and has damaged within it.

First Line:A busy and crowded station.Pages: 308Hooked by page: 1Rating: 3.5 starsRecommend for: Harry Potter fans. I can’t say it felt like a completely genuine Harry Potter story, but it was great to have new Hogwarts adventures.

First of all, can we talk about how beautiful this book is? People were going to buy it no matter what, but I’m grateful that Scholastic took the time to make it look nice and all high-quality. The binding, man. It’s got that stripe-y stuff going on – that’s when you know it’s well made.
On to the discussion – where to begin? I liked seeing where the characters ended up. Hermione was the Minister of Magic, which was awesome in a way but also kind of forced, I felt like. Hermione is smart and strong, so let’s make her the leader of the Wizarding World, of course! Ron is funny, so let’s have him own a joke shop! (Also, why was Ron running Fred and George’s joke shop? What happened to George?) It felt like they were taking the easy way out.
And speaking of taking the easy way out, some things were just oh-so convenient. Delphi just so happened to have Polyjuice potion, which normally takes, like, a month to brew – lying around? And they just happened to have some sort of DNA from Harry, Ron and Hermione?
Whatever. Moving on.
I thought the idea of Amos wanting someone to go back and save Cedric was a solid basis for the plot. It was exciting enough because it would involve evil by facing Voldemort in the past without introducing an entirely new force of evil. But like, if you’re going to bother going back in time to save a life, why not just go big and go all the way back to when Voldemort was a baby and kill him then?Goblet of Fire has always been one of my absolute favorite Harry Potter books (although, aren’t they all?) so when the plot involved a lot of time-traveling back to that time I was pretty excited. But as soon as they mentioned time-traveling, I just knew something was going to go horribly wrong. Time is just so weird and nothing about it makes sense when you start going backwards.
Initially, when they started messing with the competition in order to stop Cedric from reaching the final I thought the mishap was going to be that if Cedric had a rough start to the competition he wouldn’t want to help Harry with the egg clue and things would be thrown off that way.
I loved all the alternate universes though. Getting to see Snape again when he wasn’t mean and got to know about how he would end up being a hero was my favorite.
The whole thing about how after Cedric was embarrassed in the competition he got super angry and awful and became a Death Eater and then kiLLED NEVILLE was too much. I mean, I liked it, but liked it in a way that was more like, “THIS IS PROVOKING A LOT OF EMOTION IN ME WHICH MEANS THAT IT’S GOOD WRITING” as opposed to, “Nice.”
The one alternate universe where Albus and Harry’s relationship stayed exactly the same except Albus was in Gryffindor was kind of strange to me. Like, how in the world did messing with the past cause Albus to be sorted into a different house? Did those changes change Harry, thus affecting how he raised his son and causing Albus to grow up with different values?
I think the whole point of it was for Albus to make the realization that the fact that he and Harry didn’t get along wasn’t due to him not being in Gryffindor.
YER A GENIUS, ALBUS!
Do you mean to tell me, small child, that your father, who named you after the Slytherin headmaster and was almost sorted into Slytherin himself, doesn’t hate you, a Slytherin?
All of the arguments between Albus and Harry were so uncomfortable for me. It was like if angsty, book-five Harry as an adult was fighting angsty, book-five Harry as a child. When Harry told Albus that sometimes he wished that Albus wasn’t his son, I literally cringed.

Jumping to the ending, because I’m out of control. Delphi always seemed kind of off to me, but that was more because I thought she was just an awkward and under-developed character with an intriguing but unexplored backstory rather than evil.
And not only evil… but VOLDEMORT AND BELLATRIX’S DAUGHTER?
I’m not kidding, at the beginning when we first hear about the rumors that Scorpius might be Voldemort’s son, I was literally thinking, “No, he can’t be, because Voldemort and Bellatrix were in love.”
I HAVE SHIPPED IT SINCE DAY ONE (read: book five, but whatever).
The thing that seemed off to me was that Delphi said that she was born right before the Battle of Hogwarts. Like, define “right before”. Was Bellatrix pregnant when she was torturing Hermione or killing Dobby? Or was the baby born a while before that when our gang is in the woods?
In that case, where’s the baby during aforementioned Hermione torture and Dobby murder? Or the Battle of Hogwarts, for that matter?
It would’ve been cool if some things in this book explained little details foreshadowed in the original stories. Obviously it couldn’t, because this book really is just an additional, unplanned thing.
Anyway, once we find out that Delphi is Voldemort’s daughter and Scorpius and Albus are trapped in time, they manage to get a message onto Harry’s baby blanket. In hindsight, it’s a good idea, but I wish we had gotten to actually see them go in and get it. You’re not supposed to make contact with your previous selves when you use time travel because it can really mess you up, so what happens if you unwrap a blanket that’s around your dad as a baby? Poor Harry was already so messed up, what happens when he stares into the eyes of his son who is more than ten years his senior?
The entire Augurey thing was so, so weird to me. Did Voldemort somehow know that he would be killed at the Battle of Hogwarts and planned to have this baby that would travel back in time and save him? I can’t think of any other reason why Voldemort would want to have a child, but that isn’t at all foreshadowed in the books, which just reminds me again that this book is more milking the franchise than finishing off the story once and for all.
Harry transfigures into Voldemort, which I didn’t even really know was possible, but it worked for the most part. It was heartbreaking to hear Delphi, whose only purpose, it seems, is to save her dad even though he will never learn to know or love her.
Even more heartbreaking was reading about Harry reliving the death of his parents and not being able to do anything about it. GAH. That was painful, but very well done. 10 points to Gryffindor.

So those are my thoughts! I could go on forever but I’ll stop there. If you’ve it this far, thank you! I hope you enjoyed what I had to say. Feel free to leave any and all of your thoughts in the comments below. You can also follow my blog and on my other social media if you feel so inclined.
Thanks for reading! 🙂

Hello, and happy Sunday! It’s been a good month since I made one of these posts, and awhile since I made a post in general that wasn’t a review. So hello! I hope you’re having a wonderful and safe holiday season. Do you have any snow where you live? Normally we have tons by now where I am, but we’ve been lucky (lucky according to my mom, deprived according to me) and not had any snow this winter. According to the ever-reliable weatherman, that’s all going to change tomorrow. We’ll see what happens.
So if you’re like me, you spend your weekend stalking the queen (read: J.K. Rowling) on Twitter, and you’re always looking to see when she’s going to announce that coveted eighth book. No such luck yet.
However, she is constantly confirming and pushing aside different rumors about characters and other happenings in the Harry Potter series. It’s always exciting to get new news on the series, but sometimes this new information completely conflicts with what we previously believed about the beloved books, which can be hard to accept.
The first big reveal that J.K. Rowling made (and although it wasn’t made via Twitter, it did spark a lot of drama on the Twittersphere) is that “muggle” isn’t the correct term for non-magical folk in the United States. Here in America, we refer to them as “no-maj”. WHAT? This enraged many fans – including myself – and Americans who found themselves going from muggles to no-maj would be better described as no-mad, am I right? Or… yes-mad… because they were very upset.
I tried.
I mean, come on Jo. If we can’t be wizards, at least let us be muggles.
Apparently the American version of the word is going to be more prominent in the film – as it takes place in New York – so maybe it will grow on us.
No-maj, however, is old news. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is going to be the eighth Harry Potter story taking place in the same time period as the epilogue of the last book, but this story is going to be in play form. The casting for the production was just released, and the reveal of the people playing Harry, Ron, and Hermione caused some ripples on Twitter.Everyone was shocked that the play would feature a “black Hermione”, because that’s not the way she was portrayed in the books, movies, or illustrated editions of the books. It was especially shocking because J.K. Rowling allegedly played a large role in the casting of the play.
A fan tweeted about wanting to know how J.K. Rowling felt about the casting of Hermione, and Rowling replied saying, “Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair, and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione.”
The legions of Harry Potter fans that were shocked by this went to investigate, and many people were quick to quote a line from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban that reads, “Hermione’s white face was sticking out from behind a tree.”
Another Twitterer quoted Rowling’s tweet about her thoughts on the casting, saying, “Would have been useful [if] you mentioned that before the casting for the movies was made.”, to which Jo replied, “Writers. Don’t. Cast. Movies. Ask. John. Green.”
It’s kind of unclear if this was how J.K. Rowling always pictured Hermione, or if she’s just encouraging people to picture her how they want to and be open to new interpretations of her character’s appearance.
In new adaptations of books, things can’t always be exactly how we imagined them. Can we talk about the fact that for the movies, Peeves went from being a semi-transparent ghost to be so invisible that he wasn’t included in the films at all? Noma Dumezweni wouldn’t have been casted if she wasn’t going to make a fantastic Hermione, and I’m sure the play won’t disappoint.

So what are all of your thoughts on this? Like every piece of Harry Potter news, it just makes me want to reread the books again. Leave all of your thoughts in the comments!
It feels kind of weird that this Random Sunday actually stuck to one main topic. I was thinking about saving this for a “What’s Up Wednesday” post, but I thought it was interesting enough to have its own post dedicated to it.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and thanks for reading! 🙂

Hello, I hope you’re having a tolerable Monday! According to Amazon some books that I ordered are coming in today so I’m having a pretty good one, what about you?
So you know how everyone is always fighting online about who’s ships are more compatible or more likely to be real? Well what could be a better idea than making participants in today’s MMiM create even more ships to fight about?
If you don’t already know, Match Made in Mondays is a meme that I created. Basically every week you plug in variables in an equation (more like Math Made in Mondays, am I right?) that you think will create a perfect match. You can see upcoming and past topics, as well as a more detailed explanation here.
Without further ado, let’s get match-making!

this character from this book + this character from a different book shipped = a match made in monday

You know what’s always bothered me? How come Neville never ends up with anyone good in the Harry Potter series? Sure, Neville has his moments of heroism in the series, but wouldn’t it be the ultimate victory for Neville if he ended up marrying Hermione? Or had everyone pining for him at the Yule Ball? Obviously relationships aren’t the only thing that matter in a middle grade series, but I always thought that Neville deserved his own personal happily ever after, which is why Neville Longbottom from the Harry Potter series is the first factor in my pairing.

(Note: Yes, it was confirmed that Neville does end up with someone – and I’m not going to say who – but I swear, they had no chemistry! It’s like they were just thrown together for the sake of being a couple. I totally don’t ship it, so I’m replacing it.)

Now, what do we know about Neville? Obviously we need to make sure that his shipping partner balances out his best and worst qualities. Is anyone surprised that I’m turning to another one of my favorite series and picking Cress?
(From the Lunar Chronicles, you silly geese, if you didn’t already pick up on that)
Although I love Cress’s counterpart in her current ship (who will remain unnamed for sake of spoilers) I think Cress and Neville would make for an adorable couple. They’re both fun-loving and kind of goofy but can also kick serious butt when push comes to shove. They’ve incredibly loyal friends, and… I don’t know, just think about it!
Cress has lived in outer space for pretty much her entire life, and Neville loves plants. I just picture them sitting on the ground gardening together, with Cress completely fascinated and Neville trying as hard as he can not to accidentally blow something up.
Cress also kind of reminds me of Luna somehow, and I was always a hard-core Lunaville shipper throughout the entire series.

So how, you may ask, will Neville and Cress meet when they live on completely different sides of worlds in completely different time periods? Neville’s a wizard (although maybe not the best one, at that), so I’m sure he’ll make it happen once he realizes that they’re destined to be together. And if he doesn’t… I will.

I hope you enjoyed that MMiM post for this week! I had a really fun time making it. You’ll notice that for now it only used gifs from the Harry Potter movie, but I’m holding out hope that they’ll finally make some movies out of the Lunar Chronicles and I’ll be able to change that.
Let me know if you agree with this ship or if you made your own (either in a post, or in your mind just as you were reading it!).
Have a fantastic rest of your day, and thanks for reading! 🙂

Book: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling, Jim Kay (Illustrator)Description: First book in the seven book Harry Potter series being re-released fully illustratedPublishing Information: Released October 6, 2015 by Scholastic, Inc.Pages: 256First Sentence: Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.Goodreads Barnes and NobleAmazonIndieBound

(taken from the inside flap)

Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team, scoring points while riding a broom far above the ground. He knows no spells, has never helped to hatch a dragon, and has never worn a cloak of invisibility.
All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son Dudley – a great big swollen spoiled bully. Harry’s room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn’t had a birthday party in eleven years.
But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to an incredible place that Harry – and anyone who reads about him – will find unforgettable.
The beloved first book of the Harry Potter series, now lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Jim Kay.

This is around the sixth or seventh time that I’ve read the Harry Potter series. Let me tell you right now, I don’t read books six or seven times (and I certainly don’t purchase giant illustrated editions of them) if they are 5/5 star books. Of course, Harry Potter isn’t a 5/5 star book. I’d say it’s closer to 500/5.
Because of that, this isn’t going to be one of my normal reviews where I talk about pros and cons and character development. I highly recommend the story of Harry Potter, but what I’m reviewing now is this particular edition of Harry Potter.
Words cannot describe how excited I was when I first heard that they were making illustrated editions of these beloved books. I pre-ordered it a good month before the release date and read it almost immediately it arrived (almost a week late – thanks Amazon).
I was not disappointed at all, and I would highly recommend it. However, I understand that it is a pretty expensive book ($39.99 list price), so here are all the things I think you should know before you make your decision on whether or not to buy it:

The entire story is in here: Nothing was cut out of the original story or substituted for a picture that illustrated the same basic idea. Word for word, this is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

The book is incredibly well-made: Every page is glossy and thick. It’s a solid hardback and the spine didn’t crease or fold even when I had this gigantic book flopped open on my lap. It comes with one of those cute little built-in ribbon bookmarks and (despite what it looks like on the picture of the cover) the lettering of the title and spine are not that ugly mustard color. The letters are actually gold, shiny, and raised.

Some of the punctuation is a little weird: I was surprised to see when I first opened the book that some of the punctuation was changed from the original Harry Potter books I was used to. What I mean by this is that instead of having a sentence like, “Wow,” Harry exclaimed it says, ‘Wow,’ Harry exclaimed. It also doesn’t use periods after words like mister (i.e. Mr instead of Mr. and Mrs instead of Mrs.). It’s not the biggest deal in the world and I didn’t find it too distracting but if that’s something you have an issue with, be aware.

The text is in columns: Like in a newspaper, the text in this book is in columns instead of just straight across the page, left to right (I mean, you still read it left to right, but in separate column chunks). It was still incredibly easy to follow and I had no issue with it, but if newspaper columns bring back horrible memories of you getting a third degree paper cut while reading the “Ask Amanda”, be aware.

The illustrations are stunning: I was tempted to completely litter this review with pictures of my favorite pages, but I honestly feel like I would end up showing you the entire book and ruining the fun of seeing the pictures for the first time in the book. The ones above are just a tiny sample of the incredible artwork within these pages. I could honestly change my Instagram feed solely to pictures of this book and it would look amazing (although my poor photography skills probably wouldn’t do it all the justice it deserves)

There aren’t illustrations on every single page: Sometimes there are pictures that take up two whole, side-by-side pages, and sometimes there are two side-by-side pages with no illustrations at all, leaving you with just the columns of text. These pages are still wonderful (how could they not be, they’re covered in words from The Sorcerer’s Stone) and have a cool background that makes them seem as if they could’ve been written on parchment paper.

This book isn’t life-changing: If you hated Harry Potter on your first go-around, this version most likely isn’t going to change your opinion. (But how did you hate Harry Potter on your first go-around?!)

This book is a really fun new way to experience Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: The illustrations aren’t just cartoon versions of the same scenes and faces you see in the movies or the original, little illustrations in the books. By picking this book up, you’re getting a fresh new experience and perspective.

If you couldn’t tell already, I completely adored this book. My rating isn’t just for the story that I already knew that I loved, but it’s also for the incredible illustrations. I would 100% recommend picking this up, it blew me away.
Obviously, though, since it’s a pretty expensive book, I hope I answered any questions you might’ve had about it. If you have any more, feel free to ask in the comments. At the very least, I would highly recommend checking it out from the library… although since you’ll probably have to buy a new copy for the library after you drool all over their pages, you might as well just buy one. 😉
5/5 stars

Happy Monday! (I thought I’d try something new – starting my blog posts out with an oxymoron).
If you’re new here, Match Made in Mondays is a weekly book meme that I’ve created. If you’re not new here, I’m sorry to tell you that you’re getting an explanation of what this is all about for the fifth time. Each week I throw out a topic that you fill in the blanks for, completing what you believe to be a perfect match. For a better explanation that wasn’t written while I was half-asleep on a Monday morning, you can read the full description here.
So here I was, thinking that I was a genius for coming up with this week’s topic. I planned out a bunch of topics ahead of time (because I’m super organized, obviously) but I didn’t bother to notice that this week’s lined-up MMiM theme was exactly the same as last week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt (because I’m not that organized, obviously). So I’m sorry if it feels like this is just a late Top Ten Tuesday response with nine less answers – just try and take some pity on a tired teenager this Monday morning.

this author + this author co-writing a book together = a match made in mondays

As much as I hate to be predictable, I wouldn’t feel right if the first author I mentioned wasn’t the queen. And by the queen, I mean J.K. Rowling. As I just re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (review coming soon!) I have been freshly reminded of the incredible world and friendships that she creates in her books. Honestly, with J.K. Rowling you don’t even really need another author to know that it’s going to be an incredible book. But, since this is my meme, the least I can do is attempt to follow my rules (but feel free to break them if you participate – no judgement here).
That’s why I’m decided that I’d love to see a book written “by John K. Greenling”. That’s right.

These authors are two of my favorites, and neither of them has anything that the other lacks, simply because they’re so incredibly amazing. They both create hilarious and wonderful characters, witty dialogues, and incredible plots. (Because apparently this post is turning into me showing off my arsenal of adjectives with a positive connotation)
Can you imagine John Green’s quotable characters and philosophy thrown into a fantasy world like that of Harry Potter? I don’t know about you, but all I can picture is Dobby running around with a sock on his head, screaming, “It’s a metaphor!”
I am slightly worried about what they would do to all of these characters they created, however. They’ve definitely both shattered our hearts numerous times. I am only condoning the creation of this novel if we are ensured that no great harm will come to the characters within it, k?

We’ve reached the end of that post and just think – in the time you spent reading that, a few minutes of your day passed by and we’re just a little bit closer to it being not Monday. Hopefully you’re not procrastinating something huge that you need to get done today, because otherwise that probably would’ve been a horrific reminder. Sorry.
But hey – I know what will cheer you up! I’m hosting a giveaway, did you miss that post? I definitely think you deserve to win a book of your choice up to $15 USD from Book Depository, so be sure to enter here!
If you made a Match Made in Mondays post, be sure to link it in the comments so that I can check it out! If you didn’t, that’s perfectly fine too. Let me know what you thought of my combination if you feel so inclined, or creep through the comments and check out others’ responses!
Thanks for reading! 🙂

Since school has started I’ve begun to realize how much I dislike Wednesdays… it seems like every other day of the week has some sort of good to it except for Wednesday. If it’s Monday, at least you’re getting Monday over with. If it’s Tuesday, you can be happy that you got through Monday. Thursday is Friday Eve, and Friday is Friday. What’s Wednesday? Friday Eve Eve? I mean, yeah, you’re halfway through the work week, but what’s that telling you? Hey, you’ve come so far to reach the halfway point! Now you have to do it all again before you actually reach the end.
Sooo anyway, sorry for that rant-y beginning. I guess I can’t really help it considering that it’s practically time for a “Thursday Thoughts” post by now. I meant to make this last night and then post it this morning, but I got wrapped up in starting my latest read, Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult. If you’ve read my review for The Storytelleryou know exactly how I feel about her books so it was pretty hard to stop.
Enough blabbering. Today (tonight) I’m going to be sharing with you a book that I’m really anticipating the release of as part of the weekly meme “Waiting on Wednesday” hosted by Breaking the Spine. Here we go:

kill the boy band by goldy moldavsky

From debut author Goldy Moldavsky, the story of four superfan friends whose devotion to their favorite boy band has darkly comical and murderous results.Okay, so just know from the start that it wasn’t supposed to go like this. All we wanted was to get near The Ruperts, our favorite boy band.We didn’t mean to kidnap one of the guys. It kind of, sort of happened that way. But now he’s tied up in our hotel room. And the worst part of all, it’s Rupert P. All four members of The Ruperts might have the same first name, but they couldn’t be more different. And Rupert P. is the biggest flop out of the whole group.We didn’t mean to hold hostage a member of The Ruperts, I swear. At least, I didn’t. We are fans. Okay, superfans who spend all of our free time tweeting about the boys and updating our fan tumblrs. But so what, that’s what you do when you love a group so much it hurts.How did it get this far? Who knows. I mean midterms are coming up. I really do not have time to go to hell.

Oh my goodness, this book. I first heard about it a couple months ago when all of the Booktubers were coming home with their BEA book hauls. Obviously after BEA all Booktubers and bloggers have a huge amount of books with them, because why wouldn’t you want to bring a ton of free books home? Because they have so many books and they don’t want to make their book haul hours long, they usually fly through the books pretty quickly, which can make it hard for books to stand out.
Not this one.
Immediately when I heard the synopsis of this book I knew that it was a book that I needed to read. I was devastated when I heard how long I was going to have to wait to get my hands on a copy now that I knew about it (and now you have to wait too!).
What’s not to love about a book like this? The early reviews are fantastic, it’s the author’s debut novel, the premise sounds hysterical, and it’s told from the perspective of fangirls. Just imagine that – we’re used to the 140 character bursts of excitement from fellow fangirls… this is an entire book.
Not only that, but the entire idea of “accidentally kidnapping someone” sounds like it’s going to make for one heck of a book. I have no idea what will go down in this story, but I can’t wait to find out.
(Plus, the title really intrigues me. Like, the synopsis talks about kidnapping, but the the name of the book escalates it to killing… what’s going on there?)

Wait a second… I know what you’re thinking. Why is there another Waiting on Wednesday banner all of a sudden? Is Audrey a forgetful mess who doesn’t realize that she already used this poorly made heading at the beginning of the post? (I mean, you’re right on the first part…) Is she trying to be artsy? (Look at my Instagram feed. I’ve given up) Is she making a rant-y part two to this Waiting on Wednesday as if she hasn’t already ranted enough in this post? (Wow, what a surprisingly accurate prediction)

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE: THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION BY J.K. ROWLING

For the first time, J. K. Rowling’s beloved Harry Potter books will be presented in lavishly illustrated full-color editions. Kate Greenaway-award winning artist Jim Kay has created over 100 stunning illustrations, making this deluxe format a perfect gift as much for a child being introduced to the series, as for the dedicated fan. Book one, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, is publishing on October 6, 2015. Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team, scoring points while riding a broom far above the ground. He knows no spells, has never helped to hatch a dragon, and has never worn a cloak of invisibility. All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley — a great big swollen spoiled bully. Harry’s room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn’t had a birthday party in eleven years. But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to an incredible place that Harry — and anyone who reads about him — will find unforgettable.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: But Audrey, it says in the synopsis, “publishing on October 6, 2015. Why are you still waiting? I mean, maybe you’re thinking, Wait, you expected me to actually read the synopsis for Harry Potter? You think I don’t know what it’s about? But for the sake of this post we’re going to pretend you were thinking the first one.
Great question, dear reader! I was wondering the same thing. You see, I pre-ordered this wonderful book and it’s not here. It’s almost two days later! And I know that this is a complete first world problem, and I would like to take this time to note that this isn’t the end of the world and you don’t need to pity me because I’ll get it eventually…
But it hasn’t even shipped! What’s the point of pre-ordering if I’m not getting the book until a week or two after the release date? I mean, I know little to nothing about how shipping and online shopping works unless it’s on BookOutlet, so this issue is probably something that I caused with my own wrong option selections in the check-out or something. Or something. Or Amazon’s entire purpose is to make my life significantly less happy (but not miserable because, again, it’s not the end of the world).Sigh.

So that was a rant-y and weird and fun Waiting on Wednesday! It’s almost not even Wednesday at this point where I live, but I was determined to make a post because I love posting and hearing from you guys. In the comments, feel free to let me know if you’re anticipating Kill the Boy Band or if you’re happily enjoying your illustrated edition of Harry Potter which hopefully arrived on time. Also feel free to let me know if it’s already Thursday in your country or state or wherever you are and yell at me for not posting this sooner. 😉
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your Friday Eve Eve or Friday Eve depending where you are!
Thanks for reading! 🙂

Hello! Welcome to the second ever but first official Match Made in Mondays meme post! I was hoping to get this all put together last week, but life got crazy (and I got a little lazy) so here it is now!
For those of you who are wondering what this is all about and/or those of you who are planning to participate in this weekly meme, this is now a page on my blog where you can find the answers to your questions and the upcoming themes for the next month. You can access that page right here or through the menu by clicking on the “Match Made in Mondays Topics” tab.
The basic idea is that each week I’ll pick a general topic and you’ll fill in the blanks (represented by the underlined words in the heading below) to create what you believe to be a perfect pairing. This week’s topic was:

THESE CHARACTERS FROM THIS BOOK + THIS WORLD FROM A DIFFERENT BOOK = A MATCH MADE IN MONDAYS

If you watched Disney Channel as a kid, like I did, you’ll probably remember what was quite possibly the last few decent episodes that they put out. Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana was a three-episode series of crossover editions of Wizards of Waverly Place, Suite Life on Deck, and Hannah Montana. Now, maybe these shows came way after you would’ve been watching children’s television or maybe they even came after you and you don’t at all picture a little blonde-haired pop star wearing sparkly hats when you hear “Miley Cyrus”, but either way this topic is giving you an opportunity to imagine your own crossover book, by sticking characters of one book into the world of another.

The first choice for a book/series to include was pretty easy for me. How could I not go with Harry Potter? That series includes such a large and amazing cast of characters and an incredibly beautiful world. Not only that, but I would consider Hogwarts a pretty safe environment to bring precious characters from a different series into. I mean, the level of destruction going on really depends on what book you’re looking at, but either way there’s not a total guarantee of death. A foreign character’s chances of survival would definitely be better there then, say, in the Arena.
If I’m being honest, the second book/series I had to choose wasn’t that hard of a choice either. I wanted another amazing series that I love with kick butt and hilarious characters and a super unique environment setting. And, I mean… what’s more unique than the moon?

Can you imagine that, though? A Lunar Chronicles and Harry Potter crossover novel is a book that I would pay a lot of money to read. The hardest decision for me in this post is definitely deciding if I want the cast of The Lunar Chronicles to end up in Hogwarts with the Harry Potter gang or vice versa.
Both have their advantages. I mean, if of all of the Lunar Chronicles’ characters ended up in J.K. Rowling’s London, think of all the shenanigans they could get up to:

Levana could finally meet someone who would love her back! It’s not like he could complain about her deformed face while lacking a nose, and they both seem to have a thing for killing their family members (#IShipLevanamort)

Iko and Dobby could strike up an adorable friendship and talk about how much they admire people and clothes and socks

Cress would run around the castle, fascinated by all of the magical technology, but probably freak out when she realizes that none of her stuff works within the castle walls (someone didn’t read Hogwarts: A History)

Wolfe could make some werewolf-y friends

Captain Thorne would probably try and learn to play Quidditch in an attempt to impress everyone, refusing to accept that he doesn’t know how to ride a broomstick

Not to mention the possibility of Levana hearing about the Mirror of Erised. Can you imagine? She absolutely detests mirrors, but what would she do if she had the opportunity to look into one and see herself with everything that she ever wanted? Would she become obsessed and look at it constantly?
On the other hand, if we could transport the Harry Potter crew into The Lunar Chronicles it would definitely be an incredible ride. I can just picture Ron on the moon with Hermione, bragging about how he finally got “Wingardium Leviosa” down, which is why everything is floating, followed by Hermione preaching about the laws of gravity. Plus, Harry, Hermione, and Ron plus our crew of six from the Lunar Chronicles would just be ultimate squad goals.
However, I’m going to have to lock in the characters from the Lunar Chronicles going to join Harry and friends at Hogwarts as my final match. I still have another book to look forward to in the Lunar Chronicles world, and I’ll always be craving more Hogwarts.

That concludes my first Match Made in Mondays post! I don’t know if anyone is still planning in participating along in these, but even if you aren’t I’d love to know if you agree with my answers or what yours would be in the comments below. If you did participate or you’re going to now using this theme, be sure to come back and leave the link so that I can check it out and help share it! Also let me know if you’re enjoying this meme so far and if you have any suggestions that you’d like to see as future topics.
Thanks for reading 🙂